The most important election in the United States of America in 2008 is not the one that will take place between Barack Obama and John McCain, nor will it be if the Democrats gain a commanding majority in the two houses of Congress.

Ultimately there is little difference between Senators Obama and McCain. This statement is made much to the chagrin of Obama supporters who are treating him like a messiah who will lead the nation out of its floundering confusion. Given that Obama has done little, has little experience and has been raised and educated as part of the ruling elite, I believe Obama supporters are going to be severely disappointed.

The same is true whether it’s the Democrats or the Republicans who control Congress. Both parties are bought and paid for by corporate interests and do the corporations bidding, and allow them to plunder the riches of a nation in decline. There is little difference between the Crats and Repugs.

The most important election currently taking place in the USA is in San Francisco where the Democrat Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi is being challenged by the Independent Cindy Sheehan.

Nancy Pelosi became the first woman speaker of the house when Democrats were voted into majority in the 2006 election. They were voted into office with the understanding that they would end the war in Iraq which the vast majority of the American public wants, and Pelosi’s constituents overwhelmingly support.

Speaker Pelosi didn’t do anything about the war, and has defied the will of the voting public by declaring impeachment “Off-the-table.”

Cindy Sheehan is known for her protests against the war in Iraq where she lost her son Casey.

Sheehan’s contention is that her son Casey was murdered by President George W. Bush and company because he lied to get us into an illegal war.

President George W. Bush’s lying represents malfeasance and high crimes and misdemeanors, according to Sheehan and the vast majority of the voting public. A number of the voting public feels that what Bush and company did by consciously lying to the public is a felony offense and represents a major crime against humanity, and not merely a “misdemeanor.”

By refusing to represent the people that elected her, Nancy Pelosi, and indeed most members of Congress, is not upholding her constitutionally sworn duties, and is as guilty as Bush and company for the continuing war and the slaughter of our troops and the Iraqi public.

What does she or any member Congress care for the people that elected them? The corporations paid for their elections. They are in Washington to do the bidding of their corporate sponsors.

Sure. They pay “lip service” to representing their constituents. Constituents are the people that elect them to represent them according to the constitution. But unless their constituents are large campaign donors, members of Congress definitely don’t want to be bothered by them.

If Cindy Sheehan is able to pull a major upset and defeats Corporate Speaker of the House Pelosi, it will cause a major change in how the elected representatives and senators vote. It will be a wake-up call, a tidal shift. They will start voting what their constituents want and not what their corporate sponsors mandate, like when the country was founded and how it was allegedly envisioned by the founding fathers.

Anyone serious about change in this country needs to volunteer and get behind Cindy Sheehan. Her election will do more to change the politics of this country than anything that has happened since the Civil War.

No reasonably well informed American of conscience can support any Democrat or Republican anymore. Both parties are bought and paid for by their corporate sponsors. Whatever one’s politics, anyone paying any attention to what’s going on who still votes for any Republican or Democratic candidate is a willing partner in his or her own self-deception. There are of course differences between individual Republicans and Democrats, but those differences only serve to perpetuate the illusion of real choice. Ultimately, all party members bow to the dictates of their party’s leadership.

“Progressive Democrats” offer the starkest proof that party members can only distance themselves so far from their leaders. Take for example my beloved Dennis Kucinich, a man I truly admire despite my seeing him for what he ultimately is, a loyal Democrat. Everyone knew Kucinich was never going anywhere as a presidential candidate. He had nothing to lose by telling the truth and pursuing impeachment, which is why I originally supported him. And yet just before the Iowa caucus, way back when, he withdrew from that contest and gave what little support he had in that state to Obama, the man who famously labeled impeachment as “unacceptable” (see note 1 below). Why did he do that? I suggest he did that in accordance with the wishes of his corporate masters, who wanted progressives to think Obama really represented “change we can believe in”. So what? Read on.

Fast forward to June 9, 2008, when Kucinich introduced his 35 articles of impeachment against Bush. The date is important: on June 8, 2008, Clinton ended her campaign. While it is true that Kucinich had to run back to Ohio to tend to his own primary battle and therefore had to take impeachment off his own table for awhile, there is no way these two events – Clinton ending her campaign and Kucinich’s 35 Articles – happening one day apart is coincidence. I suggest there are two possible explanations.

The first one accepts a degree of accepted thinking that I reject but that might be more palatable to others. With Clinton’s campaign over, the Democratic Party now had their presumptive nominee and could get on bringing Clinton and Obama supporters together. It was only after the spotlight of the horserace was over and Obama was now seen as the Democratic candidate that Kucinich was allowed to resume his work on impeachment. There is a presumption, based I’m sure on TV ratings, that most people pay attention to politics during a campaign, and the Clinton/Obama slugfest did generate a lot of attention. The last thing impeachment opponents like Pelosi wanted was to have people actually pay attention, so while the Clinton/Obama bloodbath was going on, Kucinich was told to cool it. You couldn’t have him talking impeachment when all that TV time had to be filled – someone might actually ask Clinton or Obama about impeachment, and that might start a – horrors! – real dialogue, and the next thing you knew, Democratic complicity in all of Bush’s impeachable acts would have been pretty hard to ignore. It was an unacceptable risk that some Code Pink or Iraq Veteran Against The War member might just get him or herself close enough to one of the candidates and ask about Executive Abuse of Power, and how Bush’s crimes would lead to future abuse by future presidents. There was a remote chance that that conversation could also have lead to the (obvious) truth that members of the House were shirking their oaths of office by not demanding impeachment hearings of Bush/Cheney now in the House Judiciary Committee (HJC). Couldn’t have that, so they made a deal with Dennis. Once Clinton ends her candidacy, you can take a whole day on the floor for your stupid little impeachment resolution. Go knock yourself out, Dennis.

That all sounds believable enough, but I think this second explanation gets closer to the truth. Remember Democrats don’t know how to really fight: their strategy is not to take chances, to win by not losing. As long as they end up with the White House, nothing else matters. So with that framework firmly in mind, the Democratic Leadership needed to clean up loose ends once the presidential nominee was decided. In part that meant making sure impeachment advocates, despite their irritating insistence on the rule of law, still voted Democratic. As long as they realize they have nowhere else to go in November, who cares what these freaks do now? No one listens to them. As long as they get in line on Election Day, they can feel very righteous and empowered with their websites and their petitions and their pathetic little vigils and visits to their Congressional representatives. Much better they do that than start working for Ralph Nader or Cindy McKinney – keep them hooked to the Democratic Party no matter how much of a pain in the ass they are.

I think Kucinich was allowed to move forward with his 35 Articles, and a month and a half later on July 25 the HJC was allowed to hold its sham hearing “Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitations” (see note 2 below for CSPAN link), in order to throw a bone to uspity impeachment supporters that somehow proved at least some members of the Democratic Party heard us and deserved our support. We all knew the hearing wasn’t going anywhere – Conyers himself kept reminding us of that. It certainly felt great to have A Real Hearing with Bruce Fein, Vincent Bugliosi, and Elizabeth Holtzman testify to Bush & Cheney’s gross abuses of power. It was great to hear Hank Johnson and Tammy Baldwin tell us all what we already know, and hey – it’s all now in the Congressional Record! Smells like…. Victory! Wear Orange! Blog about power to the people.

But what difference did it all really make? I suggest that the difference did not happen in Washington – it happened around the country where impeachment advocates thought they had some true supporters in the Democratic Party. Sure, impeachment supporters can all hate Pelosi and Nadler and other Dem enablers, but as long as the Dems also have people like Kucinich, Baldwin and H. Johnson, “we progressives” at least have a place at their table and can work to change the party from within.

To the degree this happened, Nancy Pelosi slapped on a codpiece and said Mission Accomplished, and you’ll now see Kucinich on the trail, maybe even at the Denver convention, telling all of us to vote for Obama and all Dems down-ticket in November. Thank you ma’am may I have another.

So with love in my heart for Dennis Kucinich, I propose to you that as long as he or anyone else you think of as “progressive” remains a member of the Democratic Party, all this impeachment talk is 100% sideshow. I don’t doubt Kucinich’s sincerity for one second, and I continue to respect all the hard work and sacrifice of impeachment supporters around the country. But we have been had. The Dems expect us to get in line behind Obama, just like Dennis did both in Iowa and in the timing of his 35 Articles.

In conclusion: Congressional Republicans or Democrats alike have all abdicated their responsibilities under the Constitution. They are willing participants in the dissolution of the separation of powers. And while they personally may be gravely troubled by this, as long as they remain Republicans or Democrats they operationally couldn’t care less. All they care about is that we believe that one party is worse than the other and so we continue to support the lesser of two evils. In reality, they are both sides of the same devalued coin, and it is up to us, the citizens who may and do disagree on one “issue” after another, to come together in support of what’s left of our Constitutional order, and refuse to support any member of either corporate party.

So you are right. Cindy’s campaign against Pelosi is the most important campaign this year. Americans of all stripes should support Cindy as much as they can, as well as other Independent candidates who call out the corporate government and complicit mainstream media, the defenders of the indefensible, unconstitutional status quo. We will never have real choice in this country, let alone an honest debate about how to solve the huge problems that confront us, as long as we accept the false choices now offered to us by Democrats and Republicans.

If you are still a member of the Democratic Party, you are part of the problem, not the solution. Do whatever you have to do in your state to re-register as an Independent. Support Independent candidates and tell your friends who remain blinded by hope that the Dems are different to open their eyes. Republican and Democrat are different brand names for the same foul product, the corporatization of our system of government.

Great article. In all the apologetics for Pelosi, it is patently ignored that she is failing to uphold her oath of office in her failure to defend the Constitution. All the other supposedly mitigating good things she is said to be doing are just so much camouflage for what she and her equally culpable colleagues are not doing (i.e. defending the Constitution and holding those who violate it accountable). It is my fervent hope that the people of Cindy’s district see this is paramount above all else. If not, it sounds the death knell for our Republic.

I am so proud of Cindy and so very grateful to her for helping me be a little less scared that our democracy is finished.

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